Earth Magic
by writingwillow
Summary: Natsume, a new student in Alfea, in the same year as the winx club, has her own secrets, those she knows and those she still has to learn herself. Primarilly a Palladium x OC, rated for later chapters. Up for adoption
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Crescent Moon, Winx club.**

"Name?"

"Natsume" answered the girl, probably the lightest packed among the new students.

"You're not on the list." The, rather over serious, woman said, glaring slightly at the girl, who just looked confused.

"I should be…" she said, looking at the building curiously, "Miss Hermia said I had been enrolled here. This is Alfea right?" she asked looking back at Griselda, who looked back at her list shortly, noticing a note next to one of the names.

"Did you say a Miss Hermia enrolled you here?" the girl nodded.

"Hey how are you spelling it, I know she always had a hard time with it." Griselda looked the girl over critically, she was modestly dressed, a rarity at the fairy academy, with long jeans and a tunic style shirt that left little uncovered, with long multicolored hair, orange white and black.

"You may go in." Griselda said sharply, turning to the next girl as Natsume bowed and ran into the building, pulling her bag up her shoulder a bit as she looked for her room.

She found it with little enough difficulty, a single room she would apparently be sharing with another first year who wasn't there yet. Since she figured she'd rather not start off on bad terms with her new roommate, Natsume sat at the short table to wait for the other girl to arrive, better that they agree on who gets what bed and whatnot.

She only had to wait a few minutes before the other girl, a nervously excited blonde girl carrying a suitcase, and trying to drag a couple more behind her. She stopped nervously at the door, and then proceeded to try to force her suitcases to follow her. Natsume jumped up to help her and the girl smiled cautiously.

"Thanks, I'm Lirael,"

"Natsume." She answered bowing slightly to the other girl, who took the opportunity to look at the room they found themselves in.

"So…. Which bed is yours?" Lirael asked, trying to dispel the awkwardness a bit.

"I don't have much, so I figured you could pick." Natsume shrugged. "I guess since we've checked in and met I'll go ahead and look around the school. Guess I'll see you later." Already sick of sitting in the little room, Natsume left after smiling at her new roommate.

Natsume left the room and wandered through the halls and corridors of the castle, looking into rooms curiously as she went. That is, until she peeked into a door to find someone inside, three someone's, though she caught herself staring at one in particular, though it didn't help that one of the others, in the shape of a rabbit, was clinging to his shirt.

"Wrong room," she said backing out and blushing slightly, "Sorry about that."

"Oh! You must be one of the new students." The auburn haired elf smiled at her and the rabbit on his shoulder jumped down, transforming, she assumed back, into a short man. She smiled at him nervously.

"We're some of the professors here at Alfea, I'm Professor Wizgiz, this is Professor Dufour," he said amiably.

"And I'm Professor Palladium, the magical reality teacher." The first Professor said smiling at her.

"I'm Natsume," she said smiling at him, a light pink still dusting her cheeks. "I was just looking around campus, so I'll be less likely to get lost looking for my classes, I didn't mean to disturb you." She said, backing out of the door and bowing to them at her waist. Palladium smiled at the girl, already guessing that she would be one of his favorite students.

"Not at all!" he said happily, "We were just catching up. If you like I could show you around campus myself." She smiled, her blush darkening slightly as she bowed to him once again.

"I don't want to impose or anything," she said nervously, but he just smiled back at her. She was so sweet and polite, he definitely hope she would be in his classes.

"Not at all, it would be my pleasure." He said following her out. Behind him Wizgiz grinned up at Professor Dufour, who smiled back at the transformations professor.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Winx club or Crescent Moon.**

Natsume woke slowly, reluctant to get out of her bed, and dressed in her usual tunic shirt and jeans before going off to find her first class.

"Manners... They have a manners class? What do they teach, sit up straight and its rude to spell someone in the back?" When she did find the classroom she was a bit surprised to see one of the professors she'd met the day before.

"Oh, Good morning Dufour-sensei. I didn't know you taught manners."

"Good morning Natsume. I see you're having no trouble finding your classes today. I take it Palladium's tour yesterday proved helpful?"

"Very much so, I'm still not used to so many indoor hallways though, it may take me a wile to really learn my way around." It wasn't long before more students began to arrive and classes started. With the size of the castle there was a bit of leeway on punctuality as almost everyone was learning their way around. At least among the new students. For the most part classes were spent with everyone getting to know each other, and it wasn't long before they were on to the next one.

About halfway through the day Natsume walked into her transformations class. She had been slightly nervous when she saw that she would have transformations, hoping she could keep up her human transformation well enough when she was coming out of others. Reporting back to Sayuri that she had been found out because she was having a hard time in class wasn't a conversation she wanted to have, particularly with the problems they'd been having within the clan. Much less did she want to report why a universe of faries now knew about the lunar race to Emporer Shirogane. Still, she was pleasently surprised to see that her transformations professor was the little green man she'd met before, though admittedly it wasn't entirely unexpected considering he had been a rabbit when they met.

"Hello Wizgiz-sensei" she greeted him smiling.

"Hellow Natsume. So, how are you enjoying classes so far?" he asked sitting on the edge of his desk.

"It's fun they're... interesting." she answered. She looked like she would say more but she was cut off when someone entered the classroom behind her.

"Oh you poor thing! What happened to your hair?" Natsume turned to find that the girl who had spoken was a shocked blonde in an orange miniskirt and a green top, looking at her in pity.

"Actually..."

"Who could do this to someone, I mean..."

"This is my natural hair color." Natsume informed her, watching the blonde as she faultered.

"What," She stopped to consider it for a minute.

"That's impossible, your hair is..."

"Calico?" Natsume said, rolling her eyes, "Same as my sister's, and the same as my father had."

"Well," Wizgiz said, trying to diffuse the situation before it got out of hand. "This actually brings us right into today's subject. To introduce you all to the subject of transformation we'll be starting with one of the easiest transformations there is, changing your hair color."

By now at least most of the students had arrived and everyone took their seats. Wizgiz stood on his desk to give himself a better view of his students, with the added effect of giving them a better view of him.

"Now, like I said, this is one of the simplest transformations, so don't worry. Just focus on what color you want your hair to be and try to connect to your winx."

_'I just hope my ears don't pop out while I'm just trying to change my hair color'_ Natsume thought nervously. While she focused on trying to turn her hair a solid black she tried to keep a hold on her human form. Keeping the image of herself as a human firmly in mind when she heard a snicker behind her. She opened her eyes to see what had happened.

"Very good Natsume," Wizgiz said smiling slightly mischeviously at her. "You've successfully changed all three of your hair colors, though not exactly as I'd have expected." Natsume looked nervously into the small mirror that had been provided to see that her hair color had changed, and she was still technically a calico, only now her hair was in a dark purple, blue and black. At least she still looked human anyway. The exercise continued and Natsume was relieved to see that it didn't seem to effect her human apperance, though every time she checked the color she found she was still a calico. By the end of class she could change the olor easily, but there would always be three colors.

As classes went on Natsume would check her schedule before the bell to see where she was going next. It was nearly the end of the day when she saw that Magical Reality was her next class.

"Oh, Good afternoon Natsume!" the auburn haired elf greeted her happily.

"Good afternoon Palladium-sensei." she said smiling. Palladium smiled at her.

"If you don't mind me asking," Palladium started, Natsume looked at him curiously, "you called me that yesterday as well, does it mean anything?" Natsume grinned, confused for a moment before she realized what he was asking.

"You mean 'sensei'?" she asked. Palladium nodded to her. "It's just an honorific from back home, it means teacher."


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Winx club or Crescent Moon.**

**Magical-Tear ()- Thank you for reviewing, I'm glad you like my story so far. The story is based in the first season so Palladium would be the version from that season, smaller with darker hair. I'm trying to sort of loosely follow the story line from the episodes from there for the first part of the story, only it doesn't have much to do with the girls themselves as far as their adventures go.**

Within a few weeks Natsume had learned her way around the school fairly well. She was doing well enough in most of her classes, her worst so far actually being her Manners class, used to the customs of Japan and the realm around the Moon Palace where she'd grown up. She got along well enough with Lirael, though the two weren't really close. It was Lirael that eventually told her to go into Magix, where Natsume had yet to explore, when she found out that the calico fairy was worried about getting in touch with her sister. She told her that she could get an inter-realm phone there so she could call.

She wandered around Magix for a while, after having left the phone shop, after all there weren't any phones in the moon palace, and she had no way of knowing if Sayuri would be at the Moonshine flirting with the werewolf, so there was little point unless she had a way of buying two and giving the extra to her sister herself. Too bad she couldn't go home. She might be able to get a pass to go back to earth for a while, but she ran into the same problem as trying to call, she wouldn't know if her sister was at the moonshine when she did, and she didn't trust leaving something like an inter-realm phone there with the obsesive tinker of a vampire.

Hopefully Sayuri would be able to quiet the rest of the clan soon, not only because the clan was falling apart without strong leadership. If anyone else managed to usurp the position from her sister however, well, she'd probably never be able to go back, half-breeds weren't exactly popular among the lunar race. She wandered around the city as she thought over her problems, not really paying attention to where she was going.

Natsume had been away from her sister and their clan for nearly three years, ever since she'd brought Miss Hermia to meet her sister, of course they couldn't bring the witch to their home considering the realm they dwelt in. Hermia had been the one to offer her a way out considering the difficulties that had already been rampant since the death of her and Sayuri's father a few months before, leaving the clan to argue over who would be the next leader, or if they would have one at all. Cats, and even the lunar Neko's were notoriously fickle and not known for following rules or being particularly helpfull. They weren't even particularly clanish, unlike the werewolves and other clans of the lunar race, but it was still begining to get to her. She had been away for a little over three years with no word from home, and she would have liked to know how things were progressing at least.

Eventually when Natsume looked around herself she came to the conclusion that she probably should have paid attention to where she'd been going, not that she knew where she was going. It seems not everyone in the area had the same overly feminine sense of fashion that it seems was popular at the fairy school. That was refreshing. Okay, maybe the blonde making fun of her hair had bothered her more than she'd have liked, but it was still nice to look around and see people still had some individuality here, or at least not to see a sea of pink and yellow.

The calico wondered around the new area a bit more, figuring it must be the older side of town since it looked a bit worn down. It wasn't until a few of the girls spotted her and went on the offensive that she realized that the town was probably a bit segregated between the fairies and witches, like most of the places Hermia had taken her.

"Hey fairy, what're you doin on Cloud Tower turf?"

"Hm?" Natsume turned to see a witch with long black hair and a small mob behind her. _Strange way to show school spirit _she thought to herself. "Actually I don't know my way around yet. And it's probably not a good idea for me to think and walk at the same time anyway." The group of witches hesitated for a second, obviously not used to self bashing from 'perfect' Alfea fairies.

"Go back to Alfea, Fairy." One of the witches said. They looked ready to attack her, and at the same time they didn't seem so confident about that any more. _Funny, _she thought, _they probably think I'm nuts. But really, just because I admitted to getting myself lost? _Natsume shrugged, turning away from them.

"Well," she said to herself, "If I was walking in that direction to get here, if I go the other way I should be able to find my way back. Hopefully this works out better than most of my ideas." she turned and looked back at the witches, most of them seemed to have lost interest, and others didn't seem so sure she was a fairy at all any more. Natsume just smiled and waved goodbye to whoever happened to be looking, thankfull that it never turned into a fight anyway, she had no idea how that would work here, and she only had so many talismans to transform fully into her lunar form, and the full moon wasn't for a few more days. Unfortunately she hadn't been able to achieve the fairy form that Hermia had told her she should be able to rely on.

A moment later she realized she hadn't been paying attention to where she was again when she sensed someone watching her from nearby. Natsume stopped and, tilting her head slightly, looked over to the red haired girl who seemed to be looking at her.

"Hello," Natsume greeted her with a smile, "I don't suppose you know where I am?" The red headed witch looked around nervously before stepping up to the calico.

"You're on *Hex Street, you shouldn't be here. If the other witches see you, you could get hurt." Natsume smiled at her comfortingly, she really did seem concerned, and here she is a total stranger.

"That's alright, I already ran into a few of them." she told the girl. "I'm pretty sure they think I'm nuts. Anyway, I'm Natsume, I'm attending Alfea somewhere nearby."

"Um... I'm Mirta." the girl answered nervously. Natsume smiled at the girl again, she was so cute.

"Well, Mirta-chan, apparently I'm completely lost, which saddly doesn't really surprise me... So, since I don't have any friends anyway, want to hang out or something?" Mirta looked at her with shock, and maybe a bit of hope...

"You don't have friends?" She asked nervously. Natsume smiled sheepishly, looking quite like a kitten caught in the yarn basket.

"Not really, there's the girl I share my room with at school, but we don't really talk or anything. It is a bit strange to be living with someone and it seem like a business arrangement." She looked at Mirta, who still seemed conflicted. "I have my sister and all, but she's back home, so... Anyway, where are all your friends?" Mirta didn't seem to like that question. She looked nervous and maybe a bit depressed.

"I...I don't have many friends, I don't know where Lucy, my roommate, is, but she would be the only one." She fidgetted nervously, looking around them. Natsume just shrugged.

"So, there's no reason we shouldn't be friends is there?" Natsume asked smiling widely. "What is there to do here anyway, this is the first time I've been out of the school." Mirta smiled at her, happy to have someone with her at least.

"Um, well, there are lots of shops and cafes I guess, not as nice as the ones where the fairies go..." Natsume looked confused for a moment before she turned back to Mirta.

"What do you mean, why would there be shops just for fairies?" Mirta looked down saddly.

"Fairies and witches don't normally get along. I'm surprised you haven't run away already." Natsume blinked at her.

"Why should I run away? You certainly seem nice enough." Natsume smiled at her as they started to walk, not sure where they were going yet. "I guess I can see that though, I did notice that everything seemed to be a bit segregated while Hermia was showing me around the universe. To be honest I didn't understand it then either." Mirta blinked at the calico for a moment in shock.

"Hermia? Um, who do you mean?" Natsume looked at her curiously.

"Miss Hermia was the one who found me a few years ago, back home in Japan. Said she figured my mother must have been a fairy, I just never knew cause she died giving birth to me... Hermia herself was a witch, and since there were a few problems with my family at the time she took me with her." Natsume explained. Mirta hadn't exactly asked, but she was nicer than most of the fairies she'd met so far. "She was real pretty, tall with dark red hair and green eyes. She's the one who set it up so I could go to Alfea. Don't know what happened to her since she dropped me off though, not sure how I would get in touch with her anyway."

"Hermia is my aunt." Mirta said nervously, surprised by the bright smile that Natsume gave her at the news. "My parents don't get along with her well, but I can understand why you don't mind me as much if you know her. She's kind of well known for not being much of a witch." Natsume blinked.

"Not much of a witch, I wonder what that means. If Hermia-sensei is accused of it, it can't have much to do with power level."

"It's because she's not mean, like witches are supposed to be, since they get their power from misery and hopelessness." Mirta said looking down. Natsume looked a bit confused for a moment.

"I thought witches got their power from the moon." she said, shrugging. "I guess that makes sense though, if you get your power from unhappiness that means that when you really need the power to help someone, they're kind of giving you the power you need to help them." Mirta smiled and thought of it, makes sense why Hermia would send her to Alfea, she would never get along in Cloud tower thinking that way, even if it did make a certain amount of sense. She tried to think of another way to explain it as they wandered further away from the witches territory and into Magix.

*** I don't actually know or have a street map of Magix so I'm just going to be making up street names for the most part.**


End file.
